Fighting for Global Justice

Reyam El-Molla: I experienced Egypt’s revolution first hand. I saw people stand up bravely,
and peacefully for their rights. I saw the violent backlash. Innocent protestors
thrown in jail, dead bodies dragged through the streets. My country was at the crossroads
of two very different futures and as a lawyer I knew which path I wanted to help it take.
Narrator: Reyam El-Molla is a Cairo based human rights lawyer and a 2012 graduate of
Notre Dame’s Master of Laws program in international
human rights. A one year program that educates 20 lawyers from around the world, many fully
funded through scholarships. Nell Jessup Newton: It’s an unfortunate
fact that the countries that most need human rights lawyers are the least likely to have
law schools that teach courses in human rights. Notre Dame Law School created this program
in order to provide these young lawyers with the legal training and the network of support
they need to return home and make a real difference. El-Molla: The most remarkable part of the
program was learning from the other students. The range of everyone’s experience was incredible,
with people from countries who had already gone through transformations in human rights,
to those that were just starting to fight for
their emergence. Marko Karadzic: Notre Dame really gives you
something which I didn’t get at any other place, and that’s like a feeling that
you are at home, you are a member of a family. El-Molla: I know the future is very uncertain
here in Egypt and the challenges that lie ahead are great, but no matter what happens
I know I won’t be alone in the fight for human
rights, I will always have the Notre Dame family behind me.
Narrator: The University of Notre Dame asks: what would you fight for?
El-Molla: Fighting for global justice Jessup Newton: We are the fighting Irish